


take the fight from the kid

by theformerone



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, Gen, Post Wave, Pre-Chuunin Exams, Team Bonding, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-03 22:31:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17292665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theformerone/pseuds/theformerone
Summary: Training with his team is different than it was before the mission to Wave. Sasuke notices how things have changed.





	take the fight from the kid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Oreocat155338](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oreocat155338/gifts).



> title lifted from camisado by p!atd. it's 2019 and emo rides AGAIN. 
> 
> this is my naruto secret santa for cantcountthefandoms! i'm so sorry that i got it done so late, but i hope you'll enjoy it despite that. happy new year!!

It's different, now. They're all quieter. Sasuke isn't quite sure how he feels about that, yet. 

Naruto is quieter. He's still a loudmouth, still trying to show everyone how it's done, still convinced he can do everything right on the first try. But when Kakashi-sensei shows them something new, his bright blue eyes are sharper. They pay more attention. 

Sasuke can tell the hand where he made his blood oath (where he let poison run out of his body and into the soft wet earth below them) is still tender. Naruto handles his kunai more gingerly with that hand. Shies away completely from the senbon in his weapons kit, but Sasuke isn't going to say anything about it. 

He sees the difference in Sakura, too. It's subtler. She's kinder to Naruto, much kinder by leaps. She pulls him aside when he looks confused, takes the hand signs Kakashi-sensei shows them and runs through them at half speed, repeating all of their teacher's instructions directly into Naruto's ear as much as he needs it, as often as he needs it, until Naruto gets it. 

Watching understanding bloom over his face makes something in Sasuke's gut loosen up. 

Kakashi-sensei doesn't seem to treat them much differently, but Sasuke is perceptive. He prides himself on it. He didn't see the massacre coming, and since then he's  _worked_ to make himself a better observer of people. Maybe if he had paid more attention to the people around him instead of just himself - instead of his blind  _obsession_ \- not love,   _not_ love,  _not love -_ for his brother, then none of that would've - 

"Sasuke?"

He unclenches his jaw completely by accident, wincing as he does. He hadn't known he had been grinding his teeth so tightly. 

Kakashi looks at him impassively over the cover of his smut. Naruto is still throwing shuriken with his non-dominant hand to strengthen it. Sakura is flat on her stomach, her bright green eyes on him. Her weight training seems to be going well, if the number of Kakashi's ninken on her back while she does push-ups is any indication. 

"I'm fine," he says, forcing the words from between his teeth. His eyes are tired, he will admit that. His task had been to activate his Sharingan, and try to run through the hand signs of the random number of jutsu Kakashi had just shown him.

Kakashi's hands had been stupidly fast and the signs had been given out of order. Sasuke had to figure out what the jutsu was by the different number of signs in the combination, and their shapes. 

He had been at it for two minutes, and Sasuke's eyes ached from the effort. 

"That's funny," Kakashi muses, scratching his nose and turning the page of his book. "I don't remember asking."

Sasuke huffs and cuts his eyes away from his teacher. Sakura is still eyeballing him, as if any second she'd be willing to throw the three dogs off her back to drag him off and fuss over him. 

"My mistake," Sasuke grumbles, raising a hand to cover his eyes. The extra darkness is soothing. Comfortable. "It's actually pretty common for most teachers to care about their students."

He hears Kakashi scoff instead of seeing it. He makes some whiney comment about his cute little students disrespecting him, but Sasuke doesn't pay much attention. The fact that he's even willing to complain in such a longwinded way only proves what Sasuke knows to be a fact; Kakashi is worried about him. Worried about all of Team Seven. 

 Kakashi only bothered to pretend having feelings when he was actually having them. 

At least, that was what Sasuke thought about it.

He opens his eyes when he hears Naruto bounding up behind him. He had been sent off for target practice on his own, told to come back when he managed to throw sixty bull's-eyes in a row on his bad hand. 

Sasuke lifts an eyebrow, even as Naruto stops running right beside him. He leans over onto his knees and breathes heavily through his mouth, waving a hand at their teacher as if to announce his arrival. 

"Well, Naruto," Kakashi says in that constantly bemused way of his. "I'm glad to see you can accomplish a task when you set your mind to it." 

"Can it," Naruto wheezes, "with the nice teacher act. There's no one around."

Sasuke snorts, and can't help agreeing with him. There's a slight migraine forming in the back of his head, and he's probably only got another few hours until the force of it knocks him off his feet. The auras would settle in soon, and Sasuke didn't want to get hit with the worst of it while he was still in public.

"Hey."

He cracks open an eye, and below him, Naruto is looking up at him from under his bright eyelashes. In his hand is an eye-dropper full of fluid. Sasuke lifts an eyebrow. 

"I snagged it from Kaka-sensei," Naruto says, grinning with all his teeth. Sasuke doesn't snort, but it's a close thing. If Naruto stole anything from Kakashi, it was because Kakashi wanted him to take it from him. "Here."

Naruto tosses it up into the air, and Sasuke snatches it. The eye-dropper isn't labeled, but it's three-fourths full. Enough for a trial run. 

"It's supposed to help, y'know," Naruto says, lifting a hand to wiggle his fingers by his blue eyes. "With your eyes."

Sasuke nods, knowing full well if this came from Kakashi, it meant Kakashi used it for his own Sharingan. Which meant it was probably useful and not poison. 

Sasuke looks at his teacher, where he's gently lifting a massive brown bulldog off Sakura's back. Sakura's nearly chokes with the extra weight off of her and immediately pushes her hands up to her face to whip her hair out of her eyes. She's been wearing her hair pulled back since they got back from Wave, like she's finally begun to understand that it only makes her life harder in a fight. 

She mutters something quickly to Kakashi before he waves her off. She gets up onto coltish legs, and Sasuke stops watching her approach to squeeze a drop of Kakashi's eye medicine into his own pupils. 

"Naruto," Sakura says as beads of the medicine roll out of the corners of Sasuke's eyes. "Let me see your hand." 

"Oh, Sakura-chan, that's not really - You don't have to - ," 

Sasuke opens his eyes again in time to see Sakura offer one of those smiles that she isn't aware is as terrifying as it is charming.

"I didn't ask." 

Naruto swallows on his protests, and offers his injured hand. Sakura narrows her eyes down at the bandage on it before she starts digging around in the pack on her hip. 

"I got a basic first aid kit," she explains, focusing on getting her supplies together. A bottle of wound cleaning spray, a new bandage, and a fresh roll of medical tape. She looks up at them sheepishly, like she's wrong for being prepared. "After - you know."

Naruto uses his good hand to scratch the back of his head and only winces a little bit when Sakura plucks out a pair of medical scissors to remove his old binding. She works slowly through the process of cutting off the bandage and cleaning the wound. It's methodical and careful, but her hands are as steady as Sasuke's ever seen them. 

"Sakura," he starts, not bothering to stop himself. 

Her focus only breaks for a moment, eyes flicking to his before focusing back down at Naruto's cut. Even that is new, the swiftness with which she now can dismiss him for the more important matters at hand. And that -  _lack_ of attention makes Sasuke feel comfortable.

"I've got some cream - ,"

Naruto snorts out a laugh, and Sakura smacks the back of his head the same instant her cheeks start to turn red. 

"For after workouts. After weights," Sasuke continues, fighting the flush on the back of his own neck. "It helps. So you won't be so sore tomorrow."

Her face brightens a little at that, and it's then that Sasuke can see the tremor that she's placed in her legs to keep her hands so steady. 

"I'd - ," She swallows and nods, her sweat shined face looking at ease for the first time during their rough round of training today. "I'd really appreciate that, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke shrugs. 

"No big deal."

"Well, since you're offering each other gifts..."

Kakashi appears right behind Naruto, his head bowed low into the space where his hand is held by Sakura's as she performs wound maintenance. 

"Very well done, Sakura-chan," their teacher says, nodding at their sole kunoichi teammate. Sakura blushes and starts scurrying her supplies away back into her pack. 

"I suppose I could be bothered to give you all a gift as well," Kakashi says, slyly tucking his porn back into his pocket. 

"Ichiraku!" Naruto bellows. He even jumps into the air, punctuating his joy with a shove of his fist into the sky. 

"Aa," Kakashi nods. "We'll pass the compound on the way, so Sasuke-kun can get that ointment for Sakura-chan."

Sakura looks haltingly between the two of them, ready to interject. Sasuke shakes his head subtly, and Sakura bites her lips together. 

"I'll just step in and right back out," Sasuke adds, trying to soothe her. Even Naruto seems to have calmed down his excitement. Sasuke wonders if he isn't the most perceptive member of his team, if his clear discomfort at stopping in the compound for anything other than sleep is that obvious. 

"Let's go then," Kakashi says, tucking his hands into his pockets. He starts meandering away from the training grounds, his head tilted up to catch the cool breeze shifting through the village. "It's only two-for-one for an hour, and I don’t have the money to pay more than half price for you kids." 

"You're a jounin!" Naruto explodes, waving his hands in the air. "You've got plenty of money, you stingy old man!" 

"Stingy? Some thanks I get for buying you dinner."

"Naruto," Sakura interjects, "Kakashi-sensei is right. You've got to at least say thank you."

"Thank you, Sakura-chan. You can pick out what we get for dessert." 

"We get dessert?!"

"Naruto!"

Sasuke lets them walk ahead, and counts them, one by one, as they each turn their heads ever so slightly to make sure he's still behind them. A black eye. A pair of green ones. A pair of blues. They reach out for him as Team Seven leaves the training ground, and every time they do, Sasuke reaches back.


End file.
